[PF] Adjusting APL based on increased treasure steps

[souridealist]

So, I'm running a Pathfinder game for a couple of friends who are new to tabletop. Unfortunately, a party of two first-level characters has an effective APL of one-half, and I've been playing Pathfinder for about five years but don't have a lot of experience as a GM.

Upshot: I'm slightly terrified of accidentally killing my party.

I'm considering tossing them a little bit of treasure over the WBL guidelines to try and even things out a bit, but I'm not completely sure by how much. If I keep their wealth at CL+1, will that more or less even things out, or just create kind of a mess?

If it matters, I have a fighter with a glaive (catfolk, looking at a performance combat build because the player really really wanted a high charisma) and an oracle of life. So at least nobody's too squishy?

[Geddy2112]

Yeah, level 1 is really squishy and only having 2 players is going to make it uber squishy.

Adding more wealth will not solve the problem, particularly at higher levels. The easiest thing to do is to design CR appropriate encounters-if the party is CR 1/2, then only throw CR 1/2 encounters. You can even throw a CR 1 or even a CR2.

The biggest thing is action economy-there are only two players, when the CR system assumes 4-5 in the average party. Particularly at higher levels when one can be targeted with a stunning/paralysis or similar effect. A horde of goblins can simply throw more dice, even if they are just using slings, and eventually throwing more dice wins the day.
A CR equal encounter(CR 1/2) is going to be pretty easy for 2 level 1 PC's. The key is to keep the action economy from being too much on either side- with only 2 PC's, solo monsters are far more of a threat and actually what their CR says as a 4v1 fight normally is a cakewalk for the party. Likewise, a horde of CR lower enemies can overwhelm the PC's.

You can always shoot a bit over wealth by level for the party, particularly with 2 players because they can't pool their resources to buy incredibly powerful items like a larger party can. Some potions and a wand of cure light wounds should help them get out of the squish phase (level 1-2) and after that don't worry.

[Malroth]

just give them a NPC sidekicks you let them run, that'll equal out the action disadvantage and let you shoehorn in any skillsets you think they're lacking.

[Psyren]

5e has the same problem. Most of these games have swingy/dangerous first levels, and this is paradoxically true for newer players.

You could sidestep the problem entirely by having them gain their first level purely through roleplay, effectively starting the campaign at level 2. Alternatively, play as normal, but if they "die", then they merely black out and wake up prisoners with their wounds tended, ready to follow your breadcrumb trail to the next story hook.

A final alternative is Action or Hero points. Low levels would kill lots of people in the game world, but PCs have destiny on their side, and this is an easy way of showing that.

[Florian]

So, I'm running a Pathfinder game for a couple of friends who are new to tabletop. Unfortunately, a party of two first-level characters has an effective APL of one-half, and I've been playing Pathfinder for about five years but don't have a lot of experience as a GM.

Upshot: I'm slightly terrified of accidentally killing my party.

I'm considering tossing them a little bit of treasure over the WBL guidelines to try and even things out a bit, but I'm not completely sure by how much. If I keep their wealth at CL+1, will that more or less even things out, or just create kind of a mess?

If it matters, I have a fighter with a glaive (catfolk, looking at a performance combat build because the player really really wanted a high charisma) and an oracle of life. So at least nobody's too squishy?

The main problem with a two player game is always the difference with the economy of actions compared to a regular sized party. Even sticking to the regular APL guidelines, this´ll be messy against standard combat encounters. If this is your first try at it, do yourself (and your players) the favor and talk with them about starting with two "pet"-classes, best would be Druid and (U)Summoner. Having two "frontline pets" that can take the hits and go down without being a peril to the actual characters will take the edge out of the swingy parts. Going from there, allow them to take some races that have some solid defenses, like Aasimar for the druid. Stuff like lower scale energy resistance allows you to still use a decent chunk of magic without having to worry about overkill too much.

Just adjusting the WBL is not all that useful.
Give each character one of these: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=Z2Vla2luZHVzdHJpYWxjb21wbGV4LmNvbXx3d3d8Z3g6 NWY4ODViOWE5ZGNmN2M1MA
Add: Wand of CLW, Wand of Celestial Healing (CL3), Wand of Lesser Restoration.

[souridealist]

Geddy, thanks for... explaining to me, in detail, that I have the problem I started the thread to solve? :smallconfused: I'm also not so worried about higher levels; by that point the oracle will probably be able to throw a lot of healing and raising spells around, so I just need not to kill her. I just want them to get to that point.

Florian - thank you, but my players already have their characters picked out and built, and they wanted to play a catfolk fighter and a kitsune oracle. I didn't steer them towards pet-based classes because one of them has tried to learn D&D before and gotten overwhelmed by keeping track of too many things.

Thank you both for the equipment suggestions, though. A wand and some potions is a lot simpler than I was planning to make things and should work well.

Malroth - that's a great idea but I'm lazy. (And last time I GM'd I had a frustrating experience with trying to run friendly NPCs in combat so I got burned a bit.) Thank you, though!

Psyren - Thank you! Those are all good suggestions, especially the bread crumb trail idea. I'll try and have a potential plotline in my back pocket just in case. Also, I like your avatar.

[Psyren]

Psyren - Thank you! Those are all good suggestions, especially the bread crumb trail idea. I'll try and have a potential plotline in my back pocket just in case. Also, I like your avatar.

Thank you!

Keep in mind that the "black out" idea only really works if the party wipes. If one drops but the other remains conscious, then you can either knock out the one that's standing (e.g. have enemy reinforcements show up, though that can feel unfair), or you can have friendly NPCs show up and help get the downed one back on his feet (e.g. the city guard, a curious fey, a passing ranger/woodsman etc.)